18th Sept. J. S.
-------
"Quite the courtier," said Mrs. Dodd, delighted. Julia assented: she even
added, with a listless yawn, "I had no idea that a skeleton was such a
gentlemanlike thing; I never saw one before."
Mrs. Dodd admitted he was very thin.
"Oh no, mamma; 'thin' implies some little flesh. When he felt my pulse, a
chill struck to my heart. Death in a black suit seemed to steal up to me,
and lay a finger on my wrist: and mark me for his own."
Mrs. Dodd forbade her to give way to such gloomy ideas; and expostulated
firmly with her for judging learned men by their bodies. "However," said
she, "if the good, kind doctor's remedies do not answer his expectations
and mine, I shall take you to London directly. I do hope papa will soon
be at home."
Poor Mrs. Dodd was herself slipping into a morbid state. A mother
collecting Doctors! It is a most fascinating kind of connoisseurship,
grows on one like Drink; like Polemics; like Melodrama; like the
Millennium; like any Thing.
Sure enough, the very next week she and Julia sat patiently at the
morning levee of an eminent and titled London surgeon.
Pages:
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106